Palmisano Park 'Clean and Green' Days Set for 2014

Volunteers are invited to participate in a series of 2014 "Clean and Green" events at Bridgeport's Palmisano Park.
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Palmisano Park

BRIDGEPORT — Other than a good attitude and helping hands, you won't have to bring much else to the Clean and Green days at Palmisano Park.

Organizers of the project, which aims to spruce up the park at 29th and Halsted streets, will provide participants with tools and gloves to help pick up trash and weeds. They'll even throw in some snacks to help sweeten the deal.

Henry C. Palmisano Park opened in 2009 as Stearns Quarry Park after an extensive renovation effort. The Chicago Park District converted the former “clean construction” landfill — which was once a giant quarry — into a 27-acre public park, complete with native plant life and prairie wetlands.

The park was largely built using construction debris — there are recycled timber boardwalks, concrete walkways and a crushed stone running path. Some of the larger stones along the walkways are construction waste from the ill-fated Block 37 project Downtown.

A portion of the quarry walls remain in the park’s northwest corner, which has been transformed into a fishing pond.

The cleanup effort coincides with another volunteer project at next-door McGuane Park, where the park advisory council is collecting photographs and essays to compile in a book of "McGuane Memories," to help raise money for park programs.

To register for the Clean and Green effort, email park steward Sam Mattone at stearnsquarry@gmail.com.